Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

Category: Pennsylvania Politics

  • New Pa. poll shows Shapiro leading handily against Garrity, trouncing Trump in popularity

    New Pa. poll shows Shapiro leading handily against Garrity, trouncing Trump in popularity

    Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has a commanding lead against his Republican rival Stacy Garrity in a head-to-head matchup, and he maintains steady job approval ratings five months ahead of the November election, according to a new poll of Pennsylvania voters from Franklin and Marshall College.

    Shapiro leads Garrity 50% to 28% in the 2026 governor’s race, a crushing advantage well outside of the survey’s margin of error of 5.1 percentage points. It is the first major poll released since both candidates officially secured their parties’ nominations in uncontested primaries last month.

    The survey, conducted June 8-14 by the Center for Opinion Research on behalf of Franklin and Marshall, involved 546 registered Pennsylvania voters. Roughly 42% were Democrats, about the same percentage were Republicans, and about 16% were independents.

    Shapiro won almost half of independents and just over a quarter of Republicans, who rated his performance as excellent or good.

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    About an equal proportion of all voters — 48% — said Shapiro is doing an excellent or good job as governor as those who said he is doing a fair or poor job.

    Shapiro’s approval comes as he continues building a national profile, likely with ambitions for higher office.

    He also boasts relative popularity despite voters’ deep concern with their personal finances and the state of the economy, the top issue among every partisan group.

    “The big concern that people face is economic, and even though that’s the problem that we see facing us, the blame goes outside of Pennsylvania,” said Berwood Yost, the director of the Center for Opinion Research. “People don’t see [Shapiro] as being responsible for the economic concerns that they have.”

    But people do blame President Donald Trump.

    Just 29% of voters said Trump is doing an excellent or good job, while 71% said he is doing a fair or poor job. It marked a 10-percentage-point drop from March, when his positive approval rating was 39%.

    While 63% of Republican voters gave Trump positive reviews in the new poll, that number was almost 80% in March.

    Just under half of respondents said they are “worse off” financially than one year ago, and 35% of voters said the economy, including unemployment, housing and real estate costs, and higher gas and utility prices, is the most important problem facing the state.

    “Pennsylvania should be doing so much better,” Garrity said in a previous interview with The Inquirer. “[Voters] know we’re falling behind. They know that we have a governor who’s more interested in Pennsylvania Avenue than helping Pennsylvania families. They’re very worried about utility prices because their electric bills are going up, up, up. Groceries are expensive.”

    But among those who mention economic problems, voters in the poll trust Democrats over Republicans, 42% to 24%, as the party that can best handle the issue.

    Shapiro’s campaign released a new TV and digital ad Tuesday focusing on his expansion of workforce opportunities, such as apprenticeships in trades like welding.

    “Governor Shapiro bet on workers like me. I’m proof that bet’s paying off,” said Ryan, a worker in Western Pennsylvania, in the ad.

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    Yost said Garrity is a “high-quality candidate” with a great resume that may keep down-ballot Republicans afloat, but she is competing against a popular incumbent in a year where Democrats are poised to win seats.

    “It’s rough to be a Republican at the moment,” he said. “You’re facing those headwinds, no matter what office you’re running.”

    On the economy, the issue voters care most about, a mere 17% of voters approve of how Trump’s administration is handling inflation.

    “The concerns about personal financial circumstances, the economy, and the cost of living — they’re paramount in people’s minds, and they’ve become more pronounced since March,“ Yost said. “That’s had an effect on the president’s job approval ratings in the state, which have declined pretty substantially.”

    In the last four gubernatorial races, the average margin of victory has been about 13 percentage points, Yost said, while presidential races tend to be much tighter — about 2.2 points.

    “What’s essential to understand is that these races happen in a different context than the presidential races. There are a lot of things different about them, and typically incumbent governors have a real advantage,” he said.

    State issues show more consensus

    Many of Shapiro’s budget priorities, such as restricting cell phones in schools and taxing skill games, have widespread public support.

    Almost nine out of 10 people support limiting access to cell phones in classrooms, which follows Shapiro’s urge for legislation to “get distractions out of the classroom and create a healthier environment in our schools.”

    And 71% of registered voters favor regulating and taxing so-called skill games, the slot machine look-alikes around Pennsylvania — an 11-percentage-point increase compared with previous F&M polling in 2024.

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Monday the skill games are, in fact, slot machines and should be regulated as such, clearing the way for the state to place new rules on the devices. The decision was celebrated by Democrats who view the machines as “predatory.”

    Most voters, 70%, also support having an independent redistricting commission to draw state legislative districts, and 59% oppose mid-decade redistricting.

    Texas redrew its congressional maps last August at Trump’s urging, shifting five seats to lean more heavily Republican. California voters approved a constitutional amendment in November to permit the adoption of replacement maps that would favor Democrats. Other states have also voluntarily redrawn or created new maps following litigation.

    Shapiro said he also opposes mid-decade redistricting, telling reporters last August: “It’s not on the table here in Pennsylvania.”

    As parties compete for control of the U.S. House of Representatives this midterm election season, the poll found that voters prefer Democrats over Republicans by 12 points, 47% to 35%. Shapiro has personally backed several candidates and is hoping to use his influence to help Democrats win the majority this November.

  • Rep. Madeleine Dean says she was blocked from speaking to detainees during oversight visit to Pennsylvania’s largest ICE detention center

    Rep. Madeleine Dean says she was blocked from speaking to detainees during oversight visit to Pennsylvania’s largest ICE detention center

    Three weeks after members of Congress listened to and then publicly shared concerns from inside Pennsylvania’s largest immigrant detention center for the first time, U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean said she was blocked from speaking with detainees while visiting the same facility on Wednesday.

    Dean (D., Montgomery) said she was given “a relatively complete tour” and gathered information at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center — a 1,900-bed facility in Clearfield County that is the largest of its kind across the entire Northeast.

    But while attempting to speak with detainees, as she has done during other oversight visits, Dean said, she was told that required advance permission from the detainees themselves.

    Dean questioned the credibility of that prohibition — especially, she said, after she had informed the facility of her plans ahead of time, and after two of her colleagues were recently permitted to speak with detainees during a similar, but unannounced, oversight trip.

    “Let’s put it this way, I got a scoop of the BS,” Dean said in an interview.

    The four-term lawmaker’s fact-finding trip came after several weeks of escalating tensions around the conditions facing undocumented immigrants in detention centers such as Moshannon Valley and Delaney Hall in Newark, N.J. Both facilities are privately run by the same company, GEO Group, and have faced allegations of providing inadequate medical care and nutrition while allowing little outside oversight.

    U.S. Reps. Summer Lee and Chris Deluzio, both Pittsburgh-area Democrats, said they heard “real concerns” after emerging from Moshannon Valley on May 28.

    Their roughly two-hour tour and discussion with detainees was the first time any member of Congress had successfully entered the facility since President Donald Trump took office. It also followed reports of both poor medical care and a hunger strike led by detainees to protest the food.

    Lee and Deluzio said women in particular approached them to say they had not received proper prenatal care. At least one told them she had been sexually assaulted at the center. And watching lunches of chicken, rice, and beans being served did not make them less concerned about the quality of the food, the lawmakers said.

    A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, later said that ICE “welcomes congressional oversight” and that it provides all detainees with comprehensive medical care as well as proper meals and living conditions.

    Dean said Moshannon Valley appeared to be clean and spacious during her trip Wednesday. The medical unit was active — unlike a larger facility in Dilley, Texas, that, after she visited earlier this year, she called “inhumane” for its lacking treatment of both adults and children.

    But Dean said she questioned what the facility would have looked like if she had not announced her visit ahead of time, and she was not dissuaded from her position that the facility should be closed.

    “This administration has just so successfully, cancerously dehumanized certain populations that we warehouse them now,” Dean said. “And we allow others to profit from it using our taxpayer dollars.”

    GEO Group referred a request for comment to ICE, which did not immediately respond.

    Dean said she was particularly alarmed that the GEO Group’s contract with ICE, as well as Republican-sponsored federal budget language, appears to incentivize filling detention center beds rather than targeting those charged with violent crimes, as Trump pledged to do. She said a copy of the contract she obtained Wednesday explained GEO Group is paid $10 per individual every day they are detained, up to the first 800 detainees. The cost goes up to $40 per individual per day for every additional person detained, she said.

    “It is so perverse. It says nothing about need, nothing about detaining the worst of the worst,” Dean said. “It says pick up as many people as you can, regardless of what they have done or haven’t done, so that every bed is charging and collecting from U.S. taxpayers to keep these people in that population.”

    With Clearfield County commissioners expected to vote in September on whether to renew the contract with ICE and GEO, Dean said she hopes the commissioners choose not to extend the facility and instead shut it down.

    Lee, who has gone further than other Pennsylvania Democrats by calling for the elimination of ICE entirely, also said last month she hoped the Moshannon Valley facility would close. One of the three Clearfield County commissioners, meanwhile, said he was inappropriately denied entry to the facility and said he does not believe the county should be part of the contract, WJAC reported.

    Shutting down immigrant detention centers, however, is rare and difficult. More than 200 centers hold about 60,000 people, and Trump has been determined to increase capacity rather than reduce it.

    Dean said there were 1,666 individuals detained at Moshannon Valley on Wednesday, which is more than the 1,417 that Deluzio reported on May 28. According to Deluzio, about 1,100 of those were classified as “low security.”

  • Chester County hires new voter services director after a series of controversies at the department

    Chester County hires new voter services director after a series of controversies at the department

    Chester County has tapped a new director of voter services after the department’s previous leader resigned following election errors and a series of complaints from former employees.

    Michele DiCaprio, a consultant for a telecommunications company and a former foreign service officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development, will begin her tenure on July 20, the county announced Wednesday.

    “I am honored to join Chester County,” said DiCaprio, a West Chester resident, in a county news release. “I look forward to working with the Voter Services team to ensure secure, accurate, and efficient elections for every voter in Chester County. Elections are the foundation of our democracy, and I am committed to serving voters with integrity and transparency.”

    DiCaprio will be inheriting an office that has recently been enmeshed in controversy, including high staff turnover, allegations of a hostile work environment, and a series of election administration-related problems — most notably leaving approximately 75,000 independent and unaffiliated voters off the poll books during the November 2025 local election.

    Everyone who wanted to vote was able to do so, the county said, with 12,000 voters casting provisional ballots. But the episode bruised residents’ trust in the county’s voting security, exemplified at a public meeting in February.

    An independent law firm investigation ultimately found that human error and poor oversight led to the incident, but it did not call for the resignation of personnel, including Karen Barsoum, then the voter services director.

    Barsoum announced her resignation in March and her last day was June 12.

    Chester County Administrator Erik Walschburger and Deputy Administrator Megan Moser said in the news release that DiCaprio’s experience as a foreign service officer makes her a strong fit for the role.

    DiCaprio spent five years with USAID in Mozambique leading the Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance team working on elections, counterterrorism, and other issues, according to her LinkedIn page.

    “As a foreign service officer, Michele has spent her career leading complex international operations in fast-paced environments while ensuring federal compliance,” Walschburger said.

    “Through her years of work on election operations and counterterrorism program evaluation, she has established a strong track record of developing high-performing teams, strengthening organizational effectiveness, and managing critical public-facing services,” he said.

  • In major decision, Pa. Supreme Court rules ‘skill games’ are slot machines

    In major decision, Pa. Supreme Court rules ‘skill games’ are slot machines

    HARRISBURG — So-called skill games, the slot machine look-alikes that have proliferated by the tens of thousands around Pennsylvania bars and corner stores, are slot machine devices and should be regulated as such, the state’s highest court ruled Monday.

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling clears the way for widespread taxation and regulation by the state, as well as limits on where the machines are available, as a majority of justices ruled that both gambling law and the criminal code apply to the machines.

    “The device is a ‘slot machine,’” wrote the newly independent Justice David Wecht in the majority opinion.

    The majority recognized that the ruling could cause a “potential disturbance” for “business owners and other good-faith participants in the industry,” so the ruling will take effect after a 120-day “safe harbor” period. And if lawmakers in Harrisburg disagree with the opinion, the General Assembly “remains free at any time to take whatever legislative action it may deem appropriate.”

    Pennsylvania’s gambling industry is highly regulated and taxed. If state law is unchanged after the 120-day waiting period, the estimated 70,000 skill game machines available across the state would need to be regulated and confined to specific locations like casinos that have the proper licenses.

    Chief Justice Debra Todd and Justice Daniel McCaffery, both Democrats, joined the opinion in full, while Republican Justices Sallie Updyke Mundy and Kevin Brobson concurred with most of the majority’s reasoning but wrote a short dissent.

    Justice Christine Donohue, a Democrat, wrote a concurring decision.

    “Because chance predominates both the player’s eligibility for winnings and the magnitude of those winnings, the [skill games] device is a gambling device,” Donohue wrote.

    Justice Kevin Dougherty, a Philadelphia Democrat, sat out the long-awaited decision.

    Skill game operators have evaded taxation and regulation for more than a decade, operating in a legal gray area after lower courts ruled that the machines require a level of skill not necessary to play games of chance like slot machines.

    The most influential player in the skill games industry, Georgia-based operator Pace-O-Matic, has asked the state on multiple occasions to regulate and tax the machines — but at a rate much lower than slot machines, arguing that their technology helps small businesses with small margins stay afloat as prices rise.

    In a statement, Pace-O-Matic said it was disappointed by Monday’s ruling, which it said would have “far-reaching consequences” on Pennsylvania’s small businesses and fraternal organizations.

    “[Small businesses] are now potentially left facing an impossible choice: cease operating these games and lose an important source of revenue, or endure a legislative solution that could bring excessive regulation and crippling taxation, which will force them to cease operating these games and lose an important source of revenue,” a spokesperson for Pace-O-Matic added.

    Gov. Josh Shapiro, a first-term Democrat, has proposed regulating and taxing skill games at 52% — the same rate currently levied on slot machines and most other games of chance. He estimated taxing and regulating the machines could bring in $765.9 million for the state in new revenue in its first year, as part of his $53.2 billion February budget pitch.

    Lawmakers have been waiting for the state Supreme Court to rule whether the machines are legally slot machines or not, as the split legislature considers whether to and how much to tax them as a way to create a much-needed new revenue stream.

    Top legislators and Shapiro have convened over the last few weeks in closed-door meetings to finalize a state budget deal ahead of a June 30 deadline. Now, with the decision in hand, Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R., Westmoreland) and Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) said in a statement they believe gaming reform is a “critical piece of resolving this year’s budget.”

    In Philadelphia, City Council banned skill games in 2023 over concerns that they attract crime, but a lower court blocked enforcement of the ban while several cases worked their way to the state Supreme Court.

    A Philadelphia jury ordered Pace-O-Matic to pay $15.3 million last year to the estate of Ashokkumar Patel, a Hazleton store clerk killed during a 2020 robbery. And a Philadelphia store clerk shot last year during an armed robbery of Philly Market in Frankford, Ahmedine Maham, sued Banilla Gaming, a North Carolina-based skills game manufacturer, for enticing his assailants.

    At the end of the 120-day waiting period, the machines will be subject to regulations like slot machines and restricted to specific locations licensed to house slot machines — unless lawmakers decide to change the law.

    Pace-O-Matic, in its statement Monday, urged lawmakers to approve bipartisan proposals backed by rural GOP members and Philadelphia Democrats that would charge a $500 fee per skill game machine and would not restrict the machines to licensed slot machine locations, such as casinos.

    In a statement, Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, a Republican, praised the Supreme Court’s decision as a “significant victory for consumers, taxpayers, and the rule of law.”

    “The Supreme Court recognized what our office has argued from the beginning — these machines operate as gambling devices and cannot legally exist without the same oversight, regulation and accountability as other forms of legalized gaming in the commonwealth,“ Sunday added. ”Pennsylvanians deserve protections that ensure games are fair, transparent and operated within the bounds of the law.”

  • A group of Haverford alumni is pushing the college to remove Howard Lutnick’s name from library

    A group of Haverford alumni is pushing the college to remove Howard Lutnick’s name from library

    Haverford College students have publicly advocated for the school to consider removing U.S. Commerce Secretary and mega donor Howard Lutnick’s name from the library.

    Behind the scenes, an older group has been pushing, too.

    About a dozen vocal Haverford alumni have come out in strident disagreement with president Wendy Raymond’s decision in April not to take steps toward considering the removal of Lutnick’s name.

    Haverford College president declines to consider removing Howard Lutnick’s name from the library

    Several in the group have called for Raymond’s resignation, while at least one said he had withheld his donation. Some were critical of Lutnick even before Department of Justice documents released earlier this year showed he had contact with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as recently as 2018, long after Epstein pleaded guilty to obtaining a minor for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute.

    Haverford College president Wendy Raymond has led the college for seven years and previously announced she would step down next June.Courtesy of Haverford College

    But Raymond stood by and explained her decision during a Zoom call last week with former board members, and the current board chair said Lutnick himself feels that he is being targeted in a witch hunt, according to accounts of the meeting.

    Among the concerned alumni is Norm Pearlstine, a 1963 graduate who served on Haverford’s board of managers from 1986 to 1989 and is a former editor of the Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and Time Inc. and former chief content officer at Bloomberg.

    “I am appalled,” Pearlstine wrote to Raymond on May 3, days after she announced she would not initiate a committee to consider removing Lutnick’s name from the library. “You should resign immediately so Haverford‘s board can replace you with a leader who puts principle ahead of principal.”

    Another alumnus wrote that he would not advise his grandchildren to attend Haverford.

    “I cannot imagine that my granddaughters or grandsons would want to enter the Lutnick library or the Lutnick cafe or for that matter, any other building on campus with his name on it,” wrote Joseph Schulze, a 1963 graduate and retired Michigan school superintendent who grew up in the Philadelphia area.

    Adi Ignatius, a 1981 graduate and journalist who is editor at large of the Harvard Business Review, said he donated to Haverford every year until 2025, when he withheld his money because of the Lutnick matter.

    Haverford College alumni from 1971 hold a banner on campus about Howard Lutnick during alumni weekend.Courtesy of Chuck Durante

    Haverford in a statement said many community members who oppose removing Lutnick’s name have also written to the college or told Raymond they are against the creation of a review committee that was requested through a student resolution this spring.

    “President Raymond felt it was in the best interest of the college to reject the resolution because she did not believe this matter met the threshold necessary to constitute a committee given the college’s established standards and the information available to us at that moment,” the statement said.

    But, the college said, “the matter is not closed.” Haverford is continuing to monitor “publicly available information” and “community sentiment” on the issue and Raymond or her successor could choose to initiate a committee, the college said.

    Haverford not ready to make an ‘indictment’

    Raymond, in the June 11 Zoom call with former board members, said she regarded creating a committee close to an “indictment” and did not think the threshold had been met, according to an email account of the meeting by Pearlstine obtained by The Inquirer. Some concerns about Lutnick are political, she said, and she is not willing to consider politics in her decision-making about a renaming committee, according to accounts of the meeting.

    Students and alumni have pointed out that Lutnick had previously said he had not been in a room with Epstein, whom he found “disgusting,” since 2005, yet he testified to Congress earlier this year that he had visited Epstein’s private island with his family in 2012 and exchanged emails with him in 2018.

    But Raymond, who has led the college for seven years and previously announced she would step down next June, said in Tuesday’s meeting that she did not think Lutnick’s lying about when he last had contact with Epstein was enough of a trigger.

    Some alumni, supporting Raymond’s decision, have noted there is no evidence Lutnick participated in Epstein’s crimes or improprieties.

    “I understand that students might feel strongly in support of wanting to change the name, but I don’t believe there’s a basis to do so,” said Robert Swift, a Philadelphia lawyer and former board member who was on the call Tuesday. “I have serious differences with Howard politically, but that’s not relevant either.”

    Swift, 79, a 1968 Haverford graduate who served on the board for 12 years, said Lutnick, a former chair of the college’s board of managers, was generous and served the board well.

    “His heart was in the right place,” Swift said.

    Some were calling for Lutnick’s removal even before the Epstein connection because they did not like his politics, said one alumnus who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

    “I don’t think it’s fair to remove someone’s name from a building simply because you don’t like their politics,” the alumnus said.

    George Parker, a 1960 alumnus and a professor of finance at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, said Haverford should rely on its Quaker roots, which requires governing by consensus.

    “We do not have consensus,” Parker, a Quaker originally from the Philadelphia area, said of the Lutnick matter, “and where we do not have consensus, I do not think we should take action.”

    Lutnick’s relationship with Haverford

    Haverford has been in contact with Lutnick. Michael B. Kim, chair of Haverford’s board of managers and a private equity firm leader in Korea, said during the Zoom call that Lutnick communicated he is especially hurt that his alma mater is taking part in what he feels is a witch hunt, according to meeting accounts.

    Michael B. Kim, chair of Haverford College’s board of managers.Courtesy of Haverford College

    The board agrees with Raymond’s decision, he said.

    One of the richest men in Korea just became Haverford College’s new board chair. Here’s what to know about him.

    Lutnick’s relationship with the highly selective, small liberal arts college on the Main Line goes back decades. He lost his mother to cancer when he was in high school and then his father one week into his freshman year. Haverford’s president at the time waived his costs and he graduated in 1983 with an economics degree.

    Former chairman of financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald, he served on Haverford’s board for 21 years, the last three as chair, until 2015. His name was put on the library after a then-record $25 million donation he and his wife made in 2014. Lutnick has given the school $65 million and is one of its biggest donors.

    His Epstein ties gained scrutiny earlier this year. A Commerce Department spokesperson told the Associated Press that Lutnick had had “limited interactions” with Epstein, with his wife in attendance, and had not been accused of “wrongdoing.”

    A request to the Commerce Department’s press office to speak with Lutnick got no response.

    Haverford gets record gift from an alum the college helped save

    Under Haverford’s gift policy, the school can rename a building if “the continued use of the name may be deemed detrimental to the college, or if circumstances change regarding the reason for the naming.”

    Schulze, the former school superintendent, said he thinks that threshold has been met and a full discussion is needed.

    “Somebody else should take over if [Raymond’s] not ready to do that,” he said.

    Rob Riordan, a 1964 graduate and Trenton native who lives in Cambridge, Mass., said he was upset Raymond did not honor a request from an overwhelming majority of students at a plenary meeting who requested a committee be formed

    “To me, that felt like a violation,” said Riordan, 84, an educator who helped start charter schools in the San Diego area.

    Several alumni pointed out that nearby Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges have removed names of controversial figures from buildings in recent years.

    What’s in a name? Swarthmore College explores new title for a building whose namesake has a troubled past

    Pearlstine, who was on the Tuesday call, first wrote to Raymond and Kim in July 2025, urging that Lutnick’s name be removed. His concerns are not political, he said, but rather about behavior that conflicts with Haverford’s values.

    “Howard Lutnick is a powerful Trump administration cabinet officer who proudly helps the most lawless President in our country’s history implement policies that trample upon human rights, due process, rule of law, and respect for the independence and integrity of institutions of higher learning,” he wrote.

    It was not always that way. Ignatius, 67, who lives in Stonington, Conn., said he recalled interviewing Lutnick on stage at Haverford in 2015 and the good will in the audience toward him. Lutnick, who lost his brother and many of his company’s employees in 9/11, talked about the aftermath and how the company helped care for victims.

    “His trajectory since then has been similar to Rudy Giuliani’s,” Ignatius wrote to Raymond and Kim last August. “He has squandered the goodwill he built up after 9/11 and become a partisan troll, espousing values that are inconsistent with — and offensive to — the ideals that Haverford stands for.”

  • Fox News host fact-checks John Fetterman: ‘Senator, we haven’t confirmed that’

    Fox News host fact-checks John Fetterman: ‘Senator, we haven’t confirmed that’

    Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) was back on television Friday attacking a familiar target: controversial Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner. This time, he received some fact-checking pushback from a Fox News host.

    Despite sharing political parties, Fetterman has been an outspoken critic of Platner, who reportedly exchanged explicit text messages with other women during the early days of his marriage and is accused of volatile behavior by several ex-girlfriends. Platner has denied being physically threatening.

    The criticism followed earlier questions about a death’s-head tattoo that Platner had that was similar to a World War II SS symbol, and various comments he posted on Reddit.

    “He’s a bona fide dirtbag,” Fetterman told Philadelphia native Kristen Welker on NBC’s Meet the Press NOW Friday. “The Nazi tattoo, and the insane things that he said online. … What’s his resumé?”

    Democrat Graham Platner is taking on incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine. Sophie Park

    Fox News opinion hosts have been more than happy to welcome Fetterman in recent months, especially if it’s to criticize a fellow Democrat. He was just on the network last week bashing Platner, telling host Sean Hannity, “I’ll never carry water for that mess.”

    But on Friday night, during an appearing on The Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham had to interrupt Fetterman after he accused Platner of sending sexually explicit pictures as recently as last year.

    “Senator, we haven’t confirmed that,” Ingraham said. “Fox has not confirmed that he sent these pictures.”

    The interruption caused Fetterman to fumble a bit before calling on Platner to “clear it up” by releasing all the messages he allegedly sent.

    Amy Gertner, Platner’s wife, admitted the two had worked through issues in their marriage and acknowledged seeking help from both marriage and personal counselors.

    “No marriage is perfect, and I don’t want a perfect marriage,” Gertner said in a video shared on social media last month. “I want my marriage, and I want to be married to Graham.”

    Platner recently took a shot at Fetterman on the campaign trail, criticizing the Pennsylvania senator’s work ethic during a town hall in Portland, Maine, last weekend.

    “I got a lot of criticisms about the way this government functions. But in order for us to make it functional, we’re going to have to do stuff,” Platner said, according to The Hill. “And you can’t just go down there and be John Fetterman and … just sort of be an a-hole.”

    “Oh, I’m devastated,” Fetterman joked on NBC. “I’ll take everything he says as a badge of honor.”

    Platner is taking on incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) this fall for a seat Democrats are targeting as part of their effort to take back control of the Senate. Republicans currently control the Senate 53-47, with two independents caucusing with Democrats. So Democrats would need to gain at least four seats in the 2026 midterm elections, and right now political analysts are focusing on six states: Maine, North Carolina, Texas, Ohio, Alaska, and Iowa.

    While Fetterman won’t be supporting Platner and has veered to the right to become a key backer of some of President Donald Trump’s priorities, don’t expect to see him campaigning for Collins.

    “I am a Democrat,” Fetterman told Ingraham on Fox News. “We have different views on things.”

  • Pa. will pay for security upgrades to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home but treasurer was right to initially deny $1 million payment for the bill, AG says

    Pa. will pay for security upgrades to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home but treasurer was right to initially deny $1 million payment for the bill, AG says

    HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity acted lawfully when she declined to pay more than $1 million in bills related to security upgrades made on Gov. Josh Shapiro’s personal home in Abington Township following an arson attack on his state mansion, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office announced Friday.

    In a memo detailing a settlement agreement between the state and the unpaid contractors who provided security upgrades to Shapiro’s private home, the attorney general’s office said that Pennsylvania would foot the $1 million bill “on a one-time basis,” noting the extraordinary circumstances and the threat on Shapiro’s life that led to the upgrades being requested.

    Current state law does not account for the increasingly dangerous position public officials face in today’s political climate, and the GOP-led state attorney general’s office encouraged the General Assembly to find a legislative solution for these issues going forward.

    However, Shapiro’s administration and Pennsylvania State Police failed to follow proper procurement processes and should have approached the legislature for approvals for the security upgrades, according to the memo authored by Executive Deputy Attorney General Eisenberg and Chief Deputy Attorney General Amy Elliott.

    “Going forward, we expect that such expenditures will result from specific legislative appropriation or new general laws,” they wrote in the memo. “We looked forward to working with the administration to accomplish these goals.”

    Shapiro’s personal home received more than $1 million in security updates, including a new security system and landscaping that Pennsylvania State Police determined was necessary after a man attempted to murder Shapiro by setting several firebombs inside the governor’s residence in Harrisburg while he and his family slept.

    The attack on the Pa. governor’s mansion revealed critical — and nearly deadly — weaknesses in the state’s security for Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family
    Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks during a news conference at the governor’s official residence about a suspected arson fire that forced him, his family and guests to flee in the middle of the night on the Jewish holiday of Passover, Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Marc Levy)Marc Levy

    Garrity, a Republican who is challenging Shapiro in November’s gubernatorial election, announced in April she could not pay the security upgrade bills, arguing that state law prohibits her from approving payment on work done on a privately owned property without legislative approval. The move was criticized by the incumbent Democratic governor’s office at the time, arguing it was a “shamefully political action.”

    In a statement Friday, a spokesperson for Shapiro said the governor appreciates the attorney general’s office acting “without political interference” to approve the settlement so the contractors can be paid.

    “As the Attorney General demonstrated, the safety of the governor and his family should never be weaponized for partisan gamesmanship, and our administration will continue to work with law enforcement and elected officials across the commonwealth to keep our leaders safe,” said Shapiro spokesperson Rosie Lapowsky.

    After Garrity declined to pay the bills, the state had two options to address the outstanding payments: a review and settlement by the attorney general’s office or legislative approval of the funds. Shapiro’s administration chose the review by the state AG’s office, which is led by Attorney General Dave Sunday, a Republican who supports Garrity’s bid for governor.

    Pennsylvania State Treasurer Stacy Garrity speaks to the audience after taking the oath of office for her second four-year term in the Forum Auditorium across the street from the Capitol, Jan. 21, 2025, in Harrisburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Marc Levy)Marc Levy

    The security upgrades on Shapiro’s personal home — plus $32 million in upgrades to the state-owned governor’s residence — were made under emergency contracts, which allow state agencies to quickly respond to emerging problems without waiting for legislative approval. However, Garrity argued — and the state attorney general’s office on Friday affirmed — that the emergency process does not allow the state to spend taxpayer funds on private property, such as Shapiro’s personal residence.

    “Current procurement law does not account for the increasing reality of threats to public officers and their families,” the AG’s office wrote in the settlement agreement. “Because the law does not allow for public funding of construction on private residences, the Treasurer had no legal option other than to deny payment.”

    In a statement Friday, Garrity said the settlement makes it clear “my sworn duty is to uphold the law, protect taxpayers, and only act with explicit legal authority.”

    Her office has not yet received a request to pay the contracts, she said. Once it does, she will “carefully review each one” and pay the outstanding bills.

    “Safety and security matter to everyone, but good intentions can never excuse ignoring the law,” Garrity added.

    Shapiro has faced scrutiny from some Republican lawmakers over his administration’s rapid and sweeping response following the arson, while Democratic lawmakers rallied around him to ensure his and his family’s safety. Republican legislators have said they believe Shapiro and his family should be safe, but should follow proper channels and regulations when spending taxpayer funds.

    A committee in the Republican-controlled state Senate in December took the unprecedented step to subpoena Shapiro over the security upgrades to his personal home, arguing that his administration had not been transparent in previous inquiries about how state taxpayer dollars were being used to upgrade security there.

    How a land dispute between Gov. Josh Shapiro and his neighbor is shaking up a sleepy Abington neighborhood — and why he says it’s a ‘political stunt’

    Shapiro’s personal property upgrades also resulted in a land dispute with one of his neighbors, who argued in federal court that Shapiro was violating their constitutional rights by using his power as governor to seize a portion of their property. Shapiro, in a separate suit filed in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, argued that the disputed land had been his for years.

    Shapiro and his family split their time between the state-owned governor’s residence in Harrisburg and their Montgomery County home, where his two youngest children still attend school.

    This story was updated to note Sunday supports Garrity’s campaign for governor.

  • Pennsylvania is working to fill a spot in Trump’s ‘Great American State Fair’ as other Democratic-led states boycott

    Pennsylvania is set to have a presence at an upcoming two-week “Great American State Fair” on the National Mall, one of the signature 250th anniversary events hosted by President Donald Trump celebrating America’s founding.

    What that presence will look like for Pennsylvania — the state where the nation’s independence was declared — is still up in the air.

    All 50 states and six U.S. territories are expected to be represented with booths showcasing aspects of their culture and history. Some blue states, however, are opting out of sending their own staff to participate, citing a partisan tilt to the event and the cost to participate.

    Pennsylvania, a quintessential swing state led by Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, is still preparing to participate in an exhibit, according to a person familiar with the planning. But state officials have struggled to find a Pennsylvania business that wants to associate with the Trump-affiliated event.

    The Great American State Fair has hit numerous roadblocks in its planning in recent weeks. More than half of the acts announced to perform at a Semiquincentennial concert series withdrew shortly after its announcement over concerns the nation’s birthday planners were politically motivated. Trump then replaced the concert series with a political rally, which he will headline on June 24 and he billed as “A Rally to end all Rallies!” in a Truth Social post.

    Freedom 250, the nonprofit organization behind the 16-day event kicking off June 24, has deemed it a “first-of-its-kind world’s fair” while some Democratic officials have railed against it as a waste of taxpayer money.

    Unlike other states, Pennsylvania’s state government did not commit to sponsoring a booth. But Shapiro’s office has been trying to connect Freedom 250 with organizations and companies that could represent the state, according to federal and state sources familiar with the planning.

    It was not clear what type of Keystone State company or group would fill the gap.

    Freedom 250 was still finalizing plans with several states’ tourism boards, cultural and heritage groups, and other organizations as of Friday — less than two weeks before Trump was scheduled to headline the fair’s “kick-off celebration.”

    The event is set to include remarks by Trump and members of his cabinet, fighter jet flyovers, and a performance of “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood, a staple of Trump’s major campaign events over the years. Each day of the fair from June 25 through July 10 will have a theme — including “land & prosperity,” “military & veterans appreciation day,” “faith, values and inspiration” and “MAHA Monday.”

    At least a half-dozen states have opted not to participate, according to NOTUS and other news outlets.

    “He invited all the states to participate and wants to charge us. Charge us to go down and put something on his exhibit, whatever he’s creating for Freedom 250. It’s just ridiculous,” Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, of Massachusetts, said in a Boston Public Radio interview earlier this month.

    Shapiro — a Democrat who’s also frequently challenged Trump and is widely considered a potential contender in the 2028 race to succeed him — has not similarly criticized the fair. The governor has been involved in other 250-focused events in Pennsylvania, such as the Commonwealth Concert Series that includes concerts in five cities across the state.

    Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speaks during a Visit PA pep rally Tuesday, March 31, 2026, ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary and other major events in the state. Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer

    Freedom 250 has pushed back against the idea that the fair and other anniversary celebrations are partisan.

    “The idea that a president’s presence at America’s 250th birthday is somehow a political act is not a serious argument — and frankly, it is not serious journalism to treat it as one,” Freedom 250 spokesperson Rachel Reisner said. “No one suggested the Biden-Harris administration would have kept the president away from this moment, nor should they have. We proudly welcome President Trump, who has shown genuine enthusiasm for celebrating America and its patriotic traditions, just as we would have welcomed any sitting president. Freedom 250 looks forward to celebrating America together and hosting once-in-a-generation events.”

    The organization has announced several pieces of the program, including “classic state fair” elements like livestock competitions and interactive experiences with companies such as John Deere and Northrop Grumman, the aerospace and defense company.

    It has not detailed the focus of each state’s designated section on the mall.

    An instructional pamphlet directed to state officials explains that every state and territory can “tell its own story” by “presenting a pavilion that reflects their history, culture, and contributions to the nation.” It does not include pricing, though a source familiar with the planning said states or organizations are only responsible for covering the cost to fill the space.

    Some states are sponsoring their exhibits directly through their state agriculture or tourism departments. For example, Arizona and Colorado are planning interactive experiences that highlight their states’ scenic outdoors, and New York’s “I Love NY” tourism campaign will showcase the state’s vacation areas, according to USA Today.

    The Freedom 250 pamphlet suggests other ways states can celebrate the Semiquincentennial — through flags and signage, or “projection experiences” to light up buildings like a state Capitol. It recommends governors issue official proclamations to recognize the moment, as well as foster civic and educational opportunities like student art contests and field trips.

    “The true power of this anniversary will not come from Washington alone,” Freedom 250 CEO Keith Krach wrote to state and local officials in the document. “It will come from you.”

  • Brian Fitzpatrick steps up criticism of House Republican leaders while he starts to lean on their campaign cash

    Brian Fitzpatrick steps up criticism of House Republican leaders while he starts to lean on their campaign cash

    WASHINGTON — As U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick’s fiercest reelection battle in years got underway in the last two months, the moderate Bucks County Republican has called to restrict President Donald Trump’s war in Iran and prohibit a so-called “anti-weaponization fund” that could reward the president’s allies.

    He’s talked up Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s potential run for president, and he’s said he would “100%” become an independent if Pennsylvania didn’t have closed primaries.

    He went even further this week — deriding House Republican leadership for opposing a process that allows lawmakers like him to force a vote on issues like the weaponization fund.

    “Leadership of both parties have been guilty of this for years… just further evidence of the brokenness of the two-party system — and the rise of Independent voters is a direct manifestation of this,” Fitzpatrick wrote on social media.

    Behind the scenes, though, Fitzpatrick has started to lean on his party’s vast resources to help win his reelection and, Republicans hope, keep the narrowly divided 435-member House in GOP control.

    In a newly scheduled television ad campaign that will begin later this month, Fitzpatrick is teaming up with the National Republican Congressional Committee — the official campaign arm of House Republican leaders — to launch ads aimed at boosting his campaign in the 1st Congressional District against Democratic nominee Bob Harvie, a Bucks County commissioner who won last month’s primary with support from Shapiro and national Democrats.

    The $120,000 worth of cable TV ads represent the first foray by the NRCC in any Pennsylvania district so far this year, according to the tracking firm AdImpact.

    Both parties are competing heavily over four Republican-held seats in Pennsylvania, making the state one of the centerpieces in the fight to win the House majority during this year’s high-stakes midterms.

    The NRCC and other Republican groups have promised to help reelect all four incumbents. And with the new ads benefiting Fitzpatrick, the NRCC is spending first on the candidate who’s been the most publicly critical of their leadership and even gotten some blowback from Trump as a result.

    “Trump can say whatever Trump wants,” Robin Kolodny, a Temple University political science professor, said of the president’s accusations that Fitzpatrick is insufficiently loyal. “But you get to 218 by adding one race at a time. And if you have an incumbent who’s been successful, the party has every incentive to support them until they find that the polling says it’s the lost cause.”

    Fitzpatrick has won five terms in a nearly evenly divided Bucks County-based district with what observers have called a specific brand of politics. He votes with his party and supports Trump’s priorities the vast majority of the time, though he’s broken with them in instances like the final passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill and the expiration of COVID-era Affordable Care Act tax credits that kept costs lower for individuals using the public marketplace.

    His recent opposition to the anti-weaponization fund has echoes of that healthcare debate in December, when Fitzpatrick joined with Democrats in trying to use a process called a discharge petition to force a vote that Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson declined to set up.

    Fitzpatrick’s office and campaign did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

    But earlier this week, the Pennsylvania lawmaker and U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D., N.Y.) said they would launch a discharge petition to prevent Trump from creating a fund to compensate people who claim to be victims of a weaponized federal government, Punchbowl News reported. The idea for the $1.8 billion fund emerged from a settlement between Trump and the Department of Justice in a case about the leak of Trump’s tax returns.

    Republican lawmakers who have often acquiesced to the president’s demands voiced deep concerns. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche responded by saying the administration was walking away from the idea. Still, Trump officials have quietly worked to keep it alive and have not ruled out payments going to individuals previously charged with attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, The Atlantic reported Thursday.

    “The statement’s not satisfactory,” Fitzpatrick said on CNN earlier this month while discussing Blanche’s comments. “We need both a legal avenue here and a statutory legislative avenue. That’s what Tom and I have introduced, and that’s what we’re going to force to the floor.”

    He called the fund an “abuse” of the law. In a post on X this week, he also disparaged Republicans leaders’ “poorly managed House Floor” for preventing a discharge petition to squash it.

    Johnson, the Louisiana Republican who leads the chamber, headlined a fundraiser earlier this year for Fitzpatrick, who generally does vote for GOP priorities — including this week’s successful effort to provide additional funding for immigration enforcement within the Department of Homeland Security.

    Fitzpatrick and Suozzi had not yet launched the discharge petition as of Thursday evening, after Punchbowl reported that Republican leadership was frustrated with the idea. Some even proposed pulling back campaign contributions from NRCC “patriots” who signed on to a discharge petition, according to Punchbowl.

    Fitzpatrick is one of 15 Republicans in the NRCC’s “patriots” program that prioritizes sending resources to competitive districts.

    Also on the list are U.S. Reps. Scott Perry, in a Harrisburg-based district; Ryan Mackenzie, in the Lehigh Valley; and Rob Bresnahan, in a Scranton-based district. Each of those races are considered more of a “tossup” than Fitzpatrick’s, and Kolodny said it’s likely the NRCC will invest in advertising and campaign operations to help them as well, possibly a little later in the summer.

    She said the earlier spending on behalf of Fitzpatrick is likely a sign they found him to be “newly vulnerable” after the May 19 primary, when Harvie was nominated.

    Widely considered the most formidable challenger to Fitzpatrick so far, Harvie has already been elected by voters twice in a majority of the district and both national and state Democrats have coalesced around him.

    Kolodny called the size of the NRCC’s ad-buy “modest” but said that “they’ve done anything at all means that their polling has shown them they’ve got a problem.”

    “They have a new level of concern that they didn’t have before,” Kolodny said.

    Harvie, who is expected to benefit from outside spending by the NRCC’s counterpart, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement that the ads are proof Republican leaders “can count on [Fitzpatrick’s] vote when they need it most.”

    “We are tired of politicians like Fitzpatrick talking out of both sides of their mouth,” Harvie said. “He claims to be ‘independent,’ but he’s seeking a bailout from Trump’s Republican Party because he is one of their own.”

    Charlie Gerow, a Republican strategist with a Harrisburg-based public affairs firm, said he didn’t view Fitzpatrick’s latest moves as much different from any other instance in which he’s successfully walked a “political tightrope” in his district, which is one of only nine GOP-held districts in the country that went for Kamala Harris in 2024.

    He said the assist from the NRCC also makes sense because of how large Fitzpatrick’s district looms in a House that’s currently split 218 Republicans to 212 Democrats, with one independent and four vacancies.

    “Leadership has an absolute interest in making sure that Brian Fitzpatrick gets reelected, despite their displeasure from time to time with what he says and does,” Gerow said.

  • Members of Congress will gather at Independence Hall for a ceremonial event during the 250th anniversary week

    Members of Congress will gather at Independence Hall for a ceremonial event during the 250th anniversary week

    A ceremonial event with members of Congress will convene at Independence Hall during the upcoming celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, the first such gathering in Philadelphia since a ceremonial joint session in 1987 to mark the bicentennial.

    The event, set for July 2, will feature visits from members of Congress but is not expected to include all 535 members in a building that, when it was in use in 1776, held only 56 delegates.

    It will fall on the anniversary of the day that the Second Continental Congress voted to adopt a resolution for independence. The Declaration of Independence was drafted and formally approved on July 4.

    The gathering is years in the making. U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Democrat whose district includes the national historic site, introduced legislation starting in 2024 that called for a joint session at the site on July 2.

    Congress has convened for a ceremonial session outside of Washington, D.C. on only two other occasions — a 1987 event in Philadelphia with 55 lawmakers, and in September 2002, when more than 300 met in New York City for the one-year anniversary of 9/11.

    The congressional event comes as the City of Philadelphia and the Trump administration are engaged in an ongoing legal battle over the federal government’s efforts to remove slavery exhibits from the President’s House, an adjacent site which memorializes the nine people George Washington enslaved in Philadelphia during the nation’s founding.

    U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle holds a news conference about legislation intended to protect the President’s House in Philadelphia. Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer

    Boyle, whose legislation did not pass, announced this year’s event in a statement that did not describe it as a ceremonial joint session but as a “ceremonial event.” Details about participants and programming would come later, his office said Thursday.

    “Exactly two years ago I launched this effort to bring Members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, back to the place where it all began 250 years ago: Independence Hall,” Boyle said in a statement. “I am very proud and excited this historic and special event is happening. It will be a unifying moment for the Congress and our country, at a time when we need it most.”